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Dr. Peter Jenniskens Confirms Meteorite Find

When Lisa Webber heard a thump on her roof the night of October 17, 2012, she had no idea a meteorite was the cause. It wasn't until she read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle describing the NASA/CAMS project's prediction that Novato was a meteor's possible impact center, that she realized there may be a space rock in her back yard. Indeed, when she scoured her yard, she found a rock with light and dark regions, weighing 63 grams, and responding to magnets.

Webber called the SETI Institute's Dr. Peter Jenniskens to report her finding. Upon arriving at her home, Jennikens confirmed that a dent in her roof matched approximately the size of Lisa's find. However, he still wasn't ready to proclaim it a meteorite. "I wasn't sure at first", says Jenniskens. "The meteorite looks very unusual, because much of the fusion crust had come off."

Taking the rock back to his lab, Jenniskens examined it with a petrographic miscrosope and quickly concluded it was not a rock from space. The crust appeared to be the product of natural wheathering, not from the heat of reentry. However, the story doesn't end there as a second rock, with similar properties to Lisa's find, was discovered by a meteorite hunter in Sacramento! Read the full report from Dr. Jennikens' blog.

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